# The Nested Hall — Trance Formulas

*Bandler and Erickson. How to formulate a hypnotic trance. Copy the skeleton. Fill the brackets. Keep the structure.*

This is a builder’s book of trance. Not a biography, not a theory paper. Each formula has a structure, slots, steps, and a skeleton you can paste into your own content. Replace every noun with their life. Keep the cadence.

## The two master maps

**Erickson / Rossi (five stages):** Fix attention → depotentiate the conscious set → unconscious search → unconscious process → hypnotic response (ratify). Every Erickson move is a way of doing one of these five.

**Bandler / Grinder (Trance-formations):** Pace current experience → overload or interrupt the sequential mind → analog-mark present-tense verbs every 2–8 words → ratify → future-pace a real-life cue.

**Do not mix the doors by accident.** Erickson: slow, sensory, permission, wait, no moral. Bandler: fast, funny, transparent, commands blunt, one thread unexplained. They share pacing, yes-sets, marks, stories, binds. They split on whether you announce the install.

## How to write a trance (meta-formula)

1. Pick the door (Bandler or Erickson).
2. Pick the job of the trance (what should be true on their Tuesday when you stop talking).
3. Pick one master map.
4. Copy one **full** skeleton.
5. Fill brackets with *their* images and *their* verbs. Not ours.
6. Commands are present tense, 2–6 words, verb first, replacement behaviors not absences. Not 'stop reaching.' **Sit on your hands.**
7. Erickson marks at the clause seam. Bandler marks every 2–8 words.
8. Ratify a real body response. Future-pace a cue that will actually happen.
9. Leave one thread unexplained, or return to the first sensory place. Do not lecture.

## Master map

The whole architecture. Everything else is a piece of this.

### Erickson / Rossi — Five-Stage Microdynamics

*Erickson.* THE formula for formulating an Ericksonian trance. Every other Erickson move is a way of doing one of these five stages.

**Formula:** 1 Fixation of attention → 2 Depotentiating conscious sets → 3 Unconscious search → 4 Unconscious process → 5 Hypnotic response.

**Slots:** what they look at / listen to / feel · how the critic is softened · the inner question · the process you don't manage · the response you ratify

**Steps**

1. Fix attention on something present: sensation, a story, a memory, your voice, a spot on the wall.
2. Depotentiate the conscious set: confusion, not-knowing, humor, a story, 'you don't have to'.
3. Start an unconscious search: I wonder, that feeling, which hand, when will you notice.
4. Leave room for unconscious process. Wait. Do not fill.
5. Ratify whatever response arrives (swallow, heaviness, stillness, a tear, a breath). Name it. That's right.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
[FIXATE] You can [see/hear/feel] [present thing].
[DEPOTENTIATE] And you don't have to [know / try / make it happen].
[SEARCH] I wonder [inner question they will answer by going in].
[PROCESS] [silence, keep describing the scene]
[RESPONSE] That's right. [name what just happened]. You didn't have to make that happen.
```

**Tell it:** If you skip a stage the trance is thin. If you only do stage 1 you have attention, not trance. If you skip ratification they will later say nothing happened.

### Bandler / Grinder — Trance-formations Spine

*Bandler.* THE formula for formulating a Bandler trance. Pace what is, overload the sequential mind, mark the verbs, future-pace.

**Formula:** Pace current experience → distract / overload / interrupt the dominant (sequential) process → analog-mark suggestions → ratify → future-pace.

**Slots:** 3 undeniable nows · the overload or interrupt · commands every 2–8 words · a test · a real-life cue

**Steps**

1. Pace: three things that are already true (body, sound, time).
2. Distract the sequential mind: nested story, stacked quotes, too-fast talk, a joke, a handshake that does not complete.
3. While it is busy, analog-mark 2–6 word present-tense commands every 2–8 words.
4. Ratify a body response. Claim the machine is in.
5. Future-pace one cue that will actually happen in their life.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You're [body]. You can hear [sound]. [time truism].
[Story / joke / interrupt that is too much to sequentialize]
**[command]** … **[command]** … **[command]**
That's it. It's in.
When you next [real cue], [the new response], and it will seem natural.
```

**Tell it:** Bandler does not wait for permission to be in trance. He talks faster than notes. The notes are the critic. The body takes the verbs.

## Full trance — copy and fill

A complete session skeleton. Replace the brackets. Keep the structure.

### Erickson Session — Copy This Script Shape

*Erickson.* A complete Ericksonian trance you can rebuild with anyone’s images. Slow. Sensory. No moral.

**Formula:** Their landscape → pace now → seed one image → interspersal at seams → one confusion+pause → isomorphic tale or John → implied directive → ratify → harvest seed → wait → return to the first sensory place.

**Slots:** their place (not water if they hate water) · seed image · marked seam-words · one paradox · a character who is them and is not · inevitable cue · return place

**Steps**

1. Open in a sensory place taken from their life.
2. Pace what is already true until it cannot be denied.
3. Seed one image in one sentence. Do not explain it.
4. Keep describing. At clause seams, mark relax / down / now / easy / that's right.
5. One confusion. Pause longer than is polite. One simple suggestion.
6. A short tale or My-Friend-John whose plot is their change.
7. When [inevitable], [desired]. Silence.
8. Name a response. Return to the first place. Harvest the seed. Stop. No lecture.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
The [their place] is [sensory]. You can feel [undeniable], hear [undeniable].
Among that, [SEED IMAGE], and you never thought much about it.
As [ordinary continuation], you can **settle**, **go down**, that's right.
[Paradox]. [pause]
**[simple suggestion]**
I knew a [person] who [their problem in other clothes]. What they did was [new behavior as plot].
When the next [breath / sound / inevitable] happens, [desired change].
That's right. [SEED IMAGE] again — [what it has been doing].
The [first place] is still [here]. [silence]
```

**Tell it:** Do not use our pond. Use their kitchen, their shift, their actual dog. Keep this skeleton. Change every noun.

### Bandler Session — Copy This Script Shape

*Bandler.* A complete Bandler trance: nests, quotes, analog-marked verbs, a laugh, a named machine, one unexplained image.

**Formula:** Refuse biography → open 3 loops → quote-stack a command → mark verbs every 2–8 words → joke+command → name the machine → close out of order → leave one image → future cue.

**Slots:** machine name · story A B C · innermost speaker · replacement verbs · one joke · unexplained image · real-life cue

**Steps**

1. I do not care about your childhood. I build machines. This one is [NAME].
2. Open story A. Before it ends, B. Before that ends, C.
3. Innermost mouth says the command.
4. At the bottom, **verbs** every 2–8 words. Replacement behaviors, not absences.
5. A real joke. As they laugh, **command**.
6. Name the machine. Claim it is in.
7. Close C or B first, not in open-order. Leave one image unexplained.
8. When you next [cue], [machine runs].

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
I don't care about your childhood. This machine is [NAME]: [one line].
[STORY A]…
Before that finished, [STORY B]…
Which reminds me, [STORY C]. [Speaker] told me [other] used to say "**[command]**."
**[verb]** … **[verb]** … **[verb]**
[Punchline]
**[command]**
[Tag that keeps it a joke]
And that is [NAME]. It's in.
Anyway, [close B or C first]. [A last, or still open]
[ONE IMAGE, never explained]
When you next [real cue], [NAME] runs.
```

**Tell it:** Fill brackets with their Tuesday. Keep the cadence. If you explain the last image you killed it.

### Access Previous Trance

*Both.* If they have been in trance with you (or anyone) before, you do not start from zero. You recall the state.

**Formula:** The last time, when [sensory of that trance], and you can go back there now, even more easily.

**Slots:** sensory of last time · permission that this time is easier

**Steps**

1. Name one sensory from the previous trance (the log, the laugh, the heaviness).
2. That's right. You know this place.
3. And you can go there now, faster.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You remember [sensory from last time]. That's right.
You know this place. You have been here before.
And you can **go there now**, even more easily.
```

**Tell it:** Fractionation across sessions. Each time the road is shorter.

### Interspersal as the Induction

*Erickson.* Erickson’s named contribution, used as the entire trance: ordinary description with marked words at the seams.

**Formula:** Sensory scene. At every clause seam, a marked relax/down/now/easy. Never announce them.

**Slots:** ordinary scene from their life · seam-words

**Steps**

1. Write a slow paragraph of a real place.
2. Every second or third clause, a marked word.
3. Keep describing after each mark as if nothing happened.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
The [place] is [sensory], and you can **settle**,
while [ordinary detail], **that's right**,
and as [continuation] you can **go down**,
and the [place] continues.
```

**Tell it:** The story is the induction. If you say 'now I will hypnotize you,' you have switched to a ritual and lost this door.

### Nested Stories as the Trance

*Both.* Opening unfinished stories IS the induction. The conscious tracks plot. That tracking is the fixation. The unfinishedness is the depotentiation.

**Formula:** Open A (unfinished). Open B inside A. Open C. Payload. Close out of order (Bandler) or C-B-A (Erickson).

**Slots:** tale A B C · payload · close order · optional unclosed thread

**Steps**

1. A landscape. Leave it.
2. A character. Leave them.
3. The change as plot.
4. Marked verbs at the bottom.
5. Bandler: close the middle first. Erickson: close inside-out. One of you leaves a thread.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
[A — landscape]…
Now [B — character]…
And [C — the change as plot]…
**[verbs]**
[Bandler: close B, then A, leave C — or scramble]
[Erickson: C finishes, B finishes, A finishes, no moral]
```

**Tell it:** You do not induce and then tell stories. The stories are the induction. If you announce trance first you have used the wrong door.

### Conversational Induction (No Ritual)

*Erickson.* Trance in ordinary talk. Utilization of whatever they said last. No 'close your eyes.'

**Formula:** They say X. You pace X. And that can be the way you Y. Continue as conversation.

**Slots:** what they just said · the and-link · the use

**Steps**

1. Use their last sentence.
2. And that can be…
3. A bind or an implied directive as if you were still chatting.
4. Do not change your voice into a hypnotist. A slight drop is enough.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You [their words].
And that can be the way you **[lead]**.
Would you rather [A that does it] or [B that also does it].
```

**Tell it:** If they notice you 'started hypnosis,' you failed this door. You were supposed to still be talking.

### Utilization Induction

*Erickson.* The cough, the noise, the 'I can't be hypnotized,' the skepticism — all of it is the way in.

**Formula:** Name what they brought. And that can be the way… Cover all remaining classes.

**Slots:** what they brought · the use · the open class

**Steps**

1. Name it without fighting it.
2. And that can be…
3. You may X, or Y, or something else, and any of those is this working.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You [resistance / noise / can't].
And that can be the way you **[change]**.
You may [A], or [B], or it may happen in some other way that is yours.
```

**Tell it:** Fighting what they brought makes you an opponent. Using it makes you the room.

### Interrupt Blitz (Bandler Instant)

*Bandler.* Cut an automatic sequence. In the hole, a simple command. Resume. Trance is the missing piece they accepted.

**Formula:** Familiar sequence → cut → freeze a beat past comfort → **sleep / down / now** → resume ordinary.

**Slots:** the automatic sequence · the command in the freeze

**Steps**

1. Handshake, name-exchange, joke, sip, a sentence.
2. Halt before completion. Look at the hand, or stop mid-word.
3. Command. Then continue as if the sequence always included this.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
[Sequence begins]—
[halt, one extra beat]
**[sleep / down / now]**
—and [resume, ordinary].
```

**Tell it:** Do not explain the freeze. Explanation fills the hole you needed.

### Early Learning Set as Full Induction

*Erickson.* Returns the not-knowing in which they once learned to write or walk. That state can learn again. The memory is the trance.

**Formula:** Remember learning [ordinary hard thing]… the letters that would not stay… and you did not know, and then you knew, and you can learn this the same way.

**Slots:** childhood skill · the confusion of not-knowing · the knowing that arrived by itself · this = that

**Steps**

1. Pick a universal: letters, tying shoes, riding.
2. The confusion. The trying. The not-knowing.
3. And then it was there.
4. And you can have this the same way, without knowing how.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You remember learning [letters / to walk / to ride],
how [it wouldn't stay / you fell / the confusion],
and you didn't know how you would ever,
and then you knew, and you didn't know how you knew.
And you can learn this the same way.
```

**Tell it:** Do not interrogate their childhood. Borrow the learning state. That is enough past.

### My-Friend-John as the Trance

*Erickson.* The whole induction is a third person going into trance. Identification does the rest.

**Formula:** I had a client who sat there like you are sitting, and what they noticed was… and then they…

**Slots:** displaced person · their present state on that person · what that person did (the trance and the change)

**Steps**

1. A person who is not them, sitting as they sit.
2. Describe that person's going-in in sensory detail.
3. That person's change as plot.
4. Stop. No 'and you too.'

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
I knew a [person] who sat [as they are sitting],
and they noticed [sensation],
and then they [went in / changed],
and they didn't have to know how.
[stop]
```

**Tell it:** They can reject advice. They cannot as easily reject a story that happened to John. You stop so identification can finish the sentence.

### Yes-Set Truisms as the Whole Door

*Both.* Four things they will not deny. The fifth is the trance, filed as the next truism.

**Formula:** Body truism. Breath truism. History truism. When/as [inevitable], [trance or change].

**Slots:** 3 undeniable · 1 when-clause

**Steps**

1. You are sitting.
2. Breath is happening.
3. You have already [their fact].
4. When the next breath leaves, you can go down.
5. Wait.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You are [body].
[Breath / time] is already happening.
You have already [their fact].
When you [inevitable], you can **[lead]**.
[silence]
```

**Tell it:** Erickson: slow, sensory. Bandler: fast, then a command in the fourth slot. Same chain.

### Presupposition Chain Induction

*Both.* Stack awareness, time, ordinal, and change-of-time verbs so trance is never the question.

**Formula:** You may notice… as you continue… before you go all the way… another breath… already…

**Slots:** notice/realize · continue/already · before/when · another/first

**Steps**

1. Awareness word (notice, realize, aware) — presupposes the thing noticed.
2. Continue / already — presupposes it started.
3. Before / when — presupposes it completes.
4. Another — presupposes a first.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You may notice that you have already begun,
and as you continue,
before you go all the way **down**,
another breath can take you further.
```

**Tell it:** Do not ask if they will. Ask what they will notice as they continue. The trance is in the grammar.

### Analog Mark Is the Induction

*Both.* Ordinary sentences. The only trance technology is the second channel on selected words. Voice drop, pause, gesture, location.

**Formula:** Neutral story in channel 1. Command words in channel 2. No other ritual.

**Slots:** innocent paragraph · 2–6 word marks

**Steps**

1. Write a paragraph that could be read at a table.
2. Choose 8–20 words to mark. Present tense verbs.
3. Deliver with the mark. Do not announce the mark.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You can hear this, and you can **settle back**,
and as the [ordinary] continues you can **let it happen**,
**that's right**, and **go down**.
```

**Tell it:** Bandler marks hard, every 2–8 words. Erickson marks at the clause seam and keeps moving. Same machine. Different speed.

### Quote-Stack as Induction

*Bandler.* You never said go down. A man told you a teacher told a student. The innermost mouth is the hypnotist.

**Formula:** X said Y said Z said: **command**.

**Slots:** three speakers · innermost command

**Steps**

1. Speaker 1 is not you.
2. They quote speaker 2.
3. The command is in speaker 3's mouth, marked.
4. Return to speaker 1 doing something ordinary.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
[Speaker 1] told me that [speaker 2] used to say to [speaker 3],
"**[go down / sleep / relax now]**."
And then [speaker 1] just [ordinary action].
```

**Tell it:** The nervous system does not care whose mouth. The critic does. Give the critic a citation.

### The Blender (Commands as the Induction)

*Bandler.* No separate induction. The analog-marked verbs every 2–8 words ARE the trance. Story is only a carrier.

**Formula:** Carrier sentence **verb** carrier **verb** carrier **verb**. Density is the technology.

**Slots:** carrier · present-tense 2–6 word commands at 2–8 word spacing

**Steps**

1. Write the story you would tell anyway.
2. Every 2–8 words, a command. Present tense. Verb first. Replacement, not absence.
3. Mark them. Do not explain them.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You can **sit back** in that chair and **let the breath drop**
while the [story] continues, **that's right**, and **go down**,
**let it work**, **now**.
```

**Tell it:** If you can count more than eight words between marks, you are lecturing. If the commands are 'stop X,' you are spotlighting X. Give verbs they can do.

### Conscious–Unconscious as the Door

*Erickson.* Two jobs. Both count. Listening is success. Drifting is success. The critic is employed. The rest is free.

**Formula:** Your conscious mind can [listen / watch / note]. The rest of you can [go down / change / remember]. Both are all right.

**Slots:** conscious job · unconscious job

**Steps**

1. Hire the critic.
2. Hire the rest.
3. Both are fine. You don't have to know how.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
Your conscious mind can [listen to this story / watch the room / note the words],
while the rest of you **[goes down / learns this / lets it work]**.
You don't have to know how. Both are all right.
```

**Tell it:** If they listen, good. If they drift, good. You named both as success. There is no way to fail the suggestion.

### Covering All Possibilities as Induction

*Erickson.* Whatever they do is a yes. Trance cannot be refused because refusal was listed as a way it happens.

**Formula:** You may X, or Y, or something else entirely, and that will be the way this works for you.

**Slots:** class A · class B · open class

**Steps**

1. Eyes closing is a way.
2. Eyes open is a way.
3. Or something else, in your own way.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You may [close your eyes], or [keep them open and go in anyway],
or it may happen in some other way that is yours.
Any of those is this working.
```

**Tell it:** Never leave a way to fail. Include 'or not yet' if you must.

### Seed and Harvest as Session Shape

*Erickson.* The session is a seed in minute one and a harvest at the end. Everything between is the wait that makes the harvest mean.

**Formula:** One unexplained image, early. The entire trance. The image returns as the point. Still no lecture.

**Slots:** seed image · the work · harvest line

**Steps**

1. Minute one: one sentence of an image.
2. Do the five stages.
3. Return to the image. Let it speak one sentence.
4. Stop.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
Among the [scene], [IMAGE], and you never thought much about it.
[entire trance]
[IMAGE] again. [what it has been doing all along].
[silence]
```

**Tell it:** The wait is the technique. If you explain the seed at the start, there is nothing to harvest.

## Fix attention

Give the conscious one simple job: look, listen, feel, remember. Attention has to land somewhere.

### 5-4-3-2-1 Sensory Overload

*Bandler.* Bandler/Grinder. Occupies working memory with sensory count until sequential tracking gives up and the next suggestion is relief.

**Formula:** 5 things you see, 5 you hear, 5 you feel. Then 4-4-4. Then 3-3-3. Then 2. Then 1. Then the lead.

**Slots:** present see/hear/feel items · the lead at the bottom

**Steps**

1. Name five visible, five audible, five felt — all true now.
2. Four of each, a little slower.
3. Three. Two. One.
4. And you can [lead].

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You can see [1], [2], [3], [4], [5].
Hear [1], [2], [3], [4], [5].
Feel [1], [2], [3], [4], [5].
And four: [see] [hear] [feel] …
Three… two… one…
and you can **[lead]**.
```

**Tell it:** Must be true. If you invent a sound they will catch you. This is pacing that becomes overload by counting.

### Eye Fixation

*Both.* Give the eyes one job. When they tire, that tiredness is the induction.

**Formula:** Pick a spot. Look there. As the eyes [truism of strain], the rest of you can [lead].

**Slots:** spot · eye truisms · lead when they blink or blur

**Steps**

1. A spot slightly above eye-line.
2. Pace: looking, blinking, watering, blurring — whatever happens.
3. When the eyes want to close, that can be the way.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You can look at [spot], and keep looking.
And as the eyes [blink / blur / water], you don't have to make them close,
and when they want to, they can, and you can **[lead]**.
```

**Tell it:** Erickson uses whatever the eyes already do. Bandler will tell them to stare until the pictures get interesting.

### Match Breath, Then Slow

*Both.* Join their breathing. After three matched breaths, lengthen the exhale by a little. They follow.

**Formula:** Match rate 3× → slightly longer exhale → 'and that breath can go a little further down.'

**Slots:** their rate · the slightly slower lead

**Steps**

1. Watch the chest or shoulders. Speak on their exhale.
2. Three cycles at their speed.
3. Fourth cycle a fraction slower. Lead: and the next one can go down.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
[speak on their exhale] That's right.
[match, match, match]
And this next breath can go a little further **down**.
```

**Tell it:** If you lead before you match, you are conducting. If you match first, you are weather.

### Common Everyday Trance

*Erickson.* Uses a trance they already know (highway, book, dishes, waiting room) so you are not installing a special state. You are naming one they have.

**Formula:** You already know what it is like to be absorbed in [ordinary]. This can be like that.

**Slots:** their ordinary absorption · this = that

**Steps**

1. Ask or guess an ordinary absorption of theirs.
2. Describe it until they are in the memory of it.
3. And this can be that.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You already know the state of being absorbed in [driving / reading / waiting / a song],
the way the [miles / pages / minutes] go by and something else is doing the rest,
and this can be like that.
```

**Tell it:** You do not need a velvet voice. You need their highway.

### Can You Remember a Time… (Revivification)

*Both.* Accesses a previous trance or resource state by asking the mind to find it. The search is the induction.

**Formula:** Can you remember a time when you [absorbed / safe / learned easily / forgot the room]. Be there. See what you saw.

**Slots:** the past state · V-A-K of being there · and you can have that here

**Steps**

1. Ask for a specific past absorption.
2. Present tense: what do you see, hear, feel.
3. And that can be here, now.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
Can you remember a time when you were so [absorbed] that the room went away.
Be there. What do you see. What do you hear. Where in the body is that.
And you can have that **here**.
```

**Tell it:** If they remember trance from last week, use that. Previous trance is the shortest induction.

### Their Name as Fixation

*Erickson.* A well-timed use of their name orients attention to you, then you immediately lead.

**Formula:** [Name]. [pause]. And you can…

**Slots:** name · pause · lead

**Steps**

1. Say the name as if beginning a sentence that matters.
2. Pause a beat.
3. Lead.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
[Name].
And you can **[lead]**.
```

**Tell it:** Do not pepper the name. Once, at the turn. Surprise without threat.

### Pantomime / Nonverbal

*Erickson.* Erickson could induce with almost no words: a look at the hand, a slowing of breath, a gesture that the body copies.

**Formula:** Do in your body the state you want. Pause. Let them copy. Then one word, or none.

**Slots:** your body as the model · the wait · optional one word

**Steps**

1. Slow your own breath. Drop your own shoulders.
2. Look at their hand, not their face, if you want catalepsy.
3. Wait. One word: that's right. Or none.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
[slow your breath, drop your own shoulders]
[look where you want their attention]
[wait]
That's right.
```

**Tell it:** If your body is jazzed, your words will not hypnotize. The first instrument is you.

## Depotentiate the set

Make the critic busy, dizzy, or unemployed so it stops running the meeting.

### 7±2 Overload

*Bandler.* Working memory holds about seven chunks. Give it nine. It delegates.

**Formula:** More channels than they can sequentialize: story + commands + aside + joke + a dog, under one repeating payload.

**Slots:** extra channels · one payload underneath

**Steps**

1. Start a story.
2. Add a second story before the first is trackable.
3. Add asides, a joke, marked commands.
4. Do not give a map.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
[Story A] and meanwhile [story B], which is also [aside],
and **[command]**, and [joke], and **[command]**,
and you don't have to keep track.
```

**Tell it:** The notes cannot keep up. That is the technique. The body can.

### Confusion of Tenses

*Erickson.* Was, is, will be, had been, will have been — mixed until 'when' is no longer a job the critic can do.

**Formula:** What was is what will have been, and you can notice now what you already will have learned then.

**Slots:** past · present · future · all in one sentence

**Steps**

1. Start in past.
2. Without warning, present.
3. Then a future perfect that treats the change as already done.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You remember when you [past],
and you are [present],
and you will have already [future perfect of the change]
before you even [present trivial].
```

**Tell it:** The critic tries to sort the clocks. While it sorts, the future perfect has already filed.

### Double Task (Count and Listen)

*Both.* Gives the sequential mind a counting job so the rest can hear the suggestions.

**Formula:** Count backwards from 100 by 3s, and while that part does that, the rest of you can [lead].

**Slots:** counting or other sequential job · the lead for the rest

**Steps**

1. Assign a slightly hard count (100 by 3s, or the alphabet backwards).
2. They will lose their place. That's right.
3. And the rest of you…

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You can count back from 100 by threes, out loud or in, and it's all right to lose your place,
and while that part is busy, the rest of you can **[lead]**.
```

**Tell it:** Losing the count is the yes-signal. Ratify the loss. Do not help them count.

### Dual Induction / Two Messages

*Bandler.* Two voices or two overlapping sentences so the sequential mind cannot follow both. It picks one. The other still ran.

**Formula:** Voice A tells a story. Voice B marks commands. Or one mouth overlaps two sentences.

**Slots:** story channel · command channel

**Steps**

1. Story in one stream.
2. Commands in another (second person, other location, overlap).
3. Do not synchronize on purpose.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
[A] There was a man who [story]…
[B, overlapping] **relax** … **go down** … **that's right**
[A continues as if alone]
```

**Tell it:** On a page: **bold** inside ordinary. In a room: two operators, or one operator who changes chair.

### The Try-Bind

*Erickson.* Try presupposes difficulty and failure. 'Try to keep your eyes open' installs closing.

**Formula:** Try to [opposite of what you want]. See if you can [opposite].

**Slots:** the opposite they will fail · the thing that then happens

**Steps**

1. Give the rebel something to try that is the opposite of the work.
2. Wait for the failure of the try.
3. Ratify: that's right.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
Try to keep your eyes open just a little longer.
See if you can stay exactly as alert as you are.
That's right. And you can **[lead]**.
```

**Tell it:** Use on the person who will not be led. The try is the toy. The failure of the try is the trance.

### Confusion → Now

*Both.* After overload, the word now — analog-marked — is a sudden simple thing. The mind takes it as a place to land.

**Formula:** [overload]. [pause]. **Now.**

**Slots:** the scramble · the marked now · the simple suggestion that follows

**Steps**

1. Scramble.
2. Stop.
3. Now. Then one simple verb.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
[Paradox / too many numbers / reversal].
[silence]
**Now.**
**[simple verb].**
```

**Tell it:** Now is a location. After confusion it is the only location left.

### I Wouldn't Tell You to X Until Y

*Bandler.* A Bandler classic. The surface is caution. The payload is X, and Y is already happening or about to.

**Formula:** I wouldn't tell you to [command] until [something already true].

**Slots:** the command · the until-clause that is already so

**Steps**

1. I wouldn't tell you to…
2. The command, analog-marked.
3. Until [breath / sitting / hearing this].

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
I wouldn't tell you to **[command]** until you [are sitting / have taken that breath / heard this sentence].
```

**Tell it:** The critic hears the wouldn't. The body hears the command plus a time that has already arrived.

### Permission Door (You Don't Have To Yet)

*Erickson.* Offers rather than orders. Yet books the future. The fight leaves the room.

**Formula:** You don't have to [desired] yet. You may. I wonder if. It's not necessary that.

**Slots:** permission verb · the action · yet / now

**Steps**

1. You don't have to.
2. Yet.
3. And you can.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You don't have to **[go all the way down]** yet.
You may notice it happening anyway.
You don't need to make it.
```

**Tell it:** Bandler will say sit on your hands. Erickson will say you may notice the hands growing heavy, and you don't have to do anything about that yet. Know which room you are in.

## Unconscious search

Send the mind inward to find something. Searching is already trance.

### A Person Can… I Don't Know If You Can…

*Both.* Displaces the ability onto 'a person,' then wonders whether you can — which starts the search that performs it.

**Formula:** A person can [X]. I don't know if you can [X] yet. I wonder how soon you will notice you already are.

**Slots:** the ability · the you that will volunteer

**Steps**

1. State the ability as something people do.
2. I don't know if you can.
3. I wonder when.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
A person can [ability].
I don't know if you can **[ability]** yet.
I wonder how soon you will notice you already are.
```

**Tell it:** The 'I don't know' is honest and is also a search instruction. Don't wink.

### Before You X, You Can Y (Time Bind)

*Erickson.* Presupposes X will happen. The only question is what to do first. Y is often the induction.

**Formula:** Before you [desired trance or change], you can [small present action].

**Slots:** the presupposed X · the Y that is the induction

**Steps**

1. Name the change as a when, not an if, using before.
2. Give a small Y (breathe, sit, hear).
3. X is no longer up for debate.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
Before you **[go all the way down / have that change]**,
you can [take a breath / let the chair hold you / hear this].
```

**Tell it:** Before is a thief. It steals the whether.

### Transderivational Search

*Bandler.* Vague words (that feeling, this experience, those thoughts) send the person in to find their own referent. The inward search is trance.

**Formula:** You know, that feeling… this experience of… those thoughts that…

**Slots:** a vague noun · no specification · wait

**Steps**

1. Use that / this / those + a nominalization.
2. Do not specify whose or which.
3. Wait while they search.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You know, that feeling,
the one that is already here,
and this experience of **[going down / letting it work]**.
```

**Tell it:** If you specify, they can argue the specification. If you don't, they supply a referent from their life, which is the only one that works.

### Lesser Included Structure

*Bandler.* A command hidden as a grammatical subset of a larger innocent sentence.

**Formula:** I don't know if you can [COMMAND] as easily as you think you can.

**Slots:** innocent frame · included command

**Steps**

1. Write a long sentence.
2. Inside it, a 2–6 word command that could stand alone.
3. Mark only the included command.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
I don't know whether you can **relax now** as completely as that part of you already knows how to.
```

**Tell it:** The sentence is polite. The subset is an order. Analog-mark the subset.

### Which Hand / Which Side (Ideomotor Search)

*Erickson.* A question the body answers. The answer is a hypnotic response.

**Formula:** I wonder which [hand / side / finger] will [lift / warm / twitch] first.

**Slots:** body part · small involuntary

**Steps**

1. Wonder which.
2. Wait. Do not pick for them.
3. Ratify whatever moves.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
I wonder which hand will feel a little lighter first,
or warmer, or just different,
and you don't have to make it happen.
```

**Tell it:** Any difference is a yes. Name it. That naming is ratification.

### In a Moment, But Not Yet

*Erickson.* Separates the suggestion from this second so the critic has nothing to refuse right now, and the future is already booked.

**Formula:** In a moment, but not yet, you will… and when you do…

**Slots:** delay · the coming action · the when that assumes it

**Steps**

1. In a moment, but not yet.
2. The action.
3. When you do (presupposed).

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
In a moment, but not yet, you will **[go down]**,
and when you do, [what will be true].
Not yet.
Now.
```

**Tell it:** Promise it for later. Later arrives as a remembered appointment. The last 'now' is the landing.

## Unconscious process / response

The response that ratifies: a swallow, a heaviness, a yes they did not decide.

### That's Right — Stacking Ratification

*Erickson.* Names each micro-response so the person agrees they are already in. Three that's-rights is a yes-set made of their own body.

**Formula:** That's right. That's it. Notice that. You didn't have to make that happen.

**Slots:** what just occurred · the name that makes it trance

**Steps**

1. Watch for swallow, blink, drop of the chest, stillness.
2. That's right.
3. Do not overdo. Three is plenty. Twelve is a salesman.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
That's right.
[next micro-response] That's it.
You didn't have to make that happen.
```

**Tell it:** If you skip this they will leave saying nothing happened. The memory of trance is partly your naming of it.

### Ideomotor Levitation / Catalepsy

*Erickson.* A body phenomenon that ratifies trance. Do not demand Broadway. A finger is enough.

**Formula:** Suggest a small involuntary → wait → ratify → use as the yes-signal for going further.

**Slots:** small involuntary · wait · ratify · the further

**Steps**

1. One of those hands can feel a little light, or heavy. I don't know which.
2. Wait longer than is polite.
3. That's right. And it can stay just like that.
4. And you can go down.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
One hand or the other can notice a difference — lighter, heavier, warmer —
and you don't know which, and you don't have to make it.
[wait]
That's right. That can stay just like that.
And you can **go down**.
```

**Tell it:** If nothing moves, ratify the stillness. Stillness is a response. Demanding a lift is amateur.

### Magnetic Hands

*Both.* Two hands, a suggested pull or push. The movement is theirs, hence convincing.

**Formula:** Hands facing. Imagine a magnet / a balloon / a weight. Wait. Use the movement.

**Slots:** the imagined force · the wait · the use

**Steps**

1. Palms facing, a foot apart.
2. A magnet, or a heavy book, or a helium balloon. Their channel.
3. When they move, that's right. And that same part can [lead].

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
Hands facing. And you can imagine [magnet / balloon / book].
You don't have to make them move.
[wait]
That's right. And that same part of you can **[lead]**.
```

**Tell it:** Visual people get pictures of magnets. Kinesthetic people get weight. Match the force to the channel.

## Deepen

In and out, down and down, story inside story. Each return is faster.

### Countdown / Drops as Deepener

*Both.* Each number or each drop is a step. Couple the count to a sensation that is already happening.

**Formula:** With each [number / drop / breath / step] you can go further down.

**Slots:** the countable already happening · down

**Steps**

1. Pick a count that exists (breath, dripping, footsteps).
2. Each one, further.
3. Do not rush the numbers. The body is the metronome.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
With each [breath / drop / number],
further **down**,
easier,
that's right.
```

**Tell it:** Couple to something real. Invented metronomes feel like stage. Dripping on brass, breath, a clock they can actually hear.

### Fractionation Deepener

*Both.* In, slightly out, in deeper. Each re-entry teaches the road and shortens it.

**Formula:** In → partial reorient → in again, faster / deeper. Repeat 2–4 times.

**Slots:** in · a partial out (eyes, a stretch, a sentence of here) · in deeper

**Steps**

1. Take them in.
2. Bring them halfway back (eyes almost open, or 'you can hear the room').
3. And you can go back, further.
4. Repeat. The third entry is usually the one that holds.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
[in]
You can hear this room, and that's all right,
and you can **go back down**, even further than before.
[repeat once or twice]
```

**Tell it:** Nested loops are this at story scale. Microphone handoffs are this at voice scale. Do not fully wake them unless you mean to.

### Synesthesia Lead

*Bandler.* Cross the senses ('see how that feels,' 'hear that color') so the map-maker cannot sequentialize and the body answers.

**Formula:** See how [sound] feels. Hear the [weight]. What color is that ease.

**Slots:** sense A applied to sense B

**Steps**

1. Take a sensation they have.
2. Ask for it in another sense.
3. The search is the deepen.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You can see how that **feels**,
and hear the **weight** of it,
and notice what color that ease is.
```

**Tell it:** This is Bandler’s 4-tuple overlap. Do not explain synesthesia. Ask it.

### Time Distortion Deepener

*Both.* A minute can hold an hour of work. Or a day can keep happening until it is done.

**Formula:** In the next minute you can have all the time you need. Clock time and this time are not the same.

**Slots:** stretch or compress · the work that needs that time

**Steps**

1. Name clock time as one thing.
2. This time as another.
3. All the time you need, in the next minute.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
Clock time can do what it does,
and in this time, in the next minute,
you can have all the time you need to [work].
```

**Tell it:** Nested loops are a time distortion. Groundhog Day is a time distortion. Use it on purpose.

### Apposition of Opposites as Deepener

*Erickson.* Heavy and light, down and up, remember and forget. The critic holds both. A third state appears.

**Formula:** Pole A and pole B, together, unresolved.

**Slots:** pole A · pole B · the third state

**Steps**

1. Name both poles as true.
2. Do not resolve.
3. And you can [third].

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
Heavy and light.
Down and up.
And you can **[settle in the middle of that]**.
```

**Tell it:** Do not pick a winner. The contradiction is the solvent.

### The More X, The More Y (Accelerator)

*Bandler.* Couples a process already happening to the one you want. The engine is running. You throw a belt over it.

**Formula:** The more you [present process], the more you [desired process].

**Slots:** current process · desired process

**Steps**

1. Name something already increasing (breath ease, heaviness, the story).
2. The more that, the more the lead.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
The more you [hear this / settle / wait],
the more you **[go down / let it work]**.
```

**Tell it:** Do not couple to something that isn't happening. That's a lie, and they will feel it.

## The work inside trance

Once they are in, this is how you put the new thing in without yanking them out.

### Here / There Dissociation

*Both.* Puts the critic in one place and the work in another. The balcony can watch. The stage can change.

**Formula:** You can watch that from here. There, that can [change]. Here, you can be comfortable.

**Slots:** here (observer) · there (the work)

**Steps**

1. Here: the chair, the watching.
2. There: the younger, the problem, the old movie.
3. There does the work. Here stays.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You can watch that from **here**,
and **there**, that can [change],
and here you can be comfortable while it does.
```

**Tell it:** If they slide into there and the feeling floods, put them back here first. Then there can work.

### Posthypnotic Cue Install

*Both.* Pairs a future real-life cue with a response so the trance keeps working without you.

**Formula:** When [cue that will actually happen], you will [response], and it will seem natural / automatic / like you.

**Slots:** real cue · response · natural

**Steps**

1. Pick a cue that will fire this week (doorway, phone, urge, a person).
2. Pair the new response.
3. Seem natural. Not robotic.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
When you next [real cue],
you will [new response],
and it will seem natural.
```

**Tell it:** Vague cues do not fire. A Tuesday, a doorway, a phone in the hand. Run it once as a future pace if you are in Bandler’s door.

### Future Pace as Last Beat

*Bandler.* Run the new response in a vivid future scene now, so it is already a memory when the Tuesday arrives.

**Formula:** See a specific future scene → step in → run the new behavior → notice it worked → back here.

**Slots:** specific scene · the new behavior · evidence it worked

**Steps**

1. A real upcoming moment. Not 'someday.'
2. Step in. Present tense.
3. The new verbs. Evidence.
4. Back. That's in.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
See [specific Tuesday, doorway, phone].
Step in. You [new verbs].
Notice [evidence it worked].
Back here. That's in.
```

**Tell it:** Vague futures do not hold. If they cannot see a Tuesday, you do not have an install yet.

### Pseudo-Orientation in Time

*Erickson.* Orients them in a future that has already solved it (or a past that received help), then brings the solution back. The critic cannot argue with a memory of a future.

**Formula:** Go forward to a time when this is already handled. Look back. What did you do. Bring that back.

**Slots:** future location · the already-done · the return

**Steps**

1. A time when this is already handled.
2. Look back at now from there.
3. What did you do. Who did you become.
4. Bring that back.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
And you can go forward to a time when this is already handled.
Look back. What did you do.
Bring that back here.
```

**Tell it:** Wrong tense for an argument. They are remembering a future, not promising one.

### Compound Suggestion — Conjunction

*Erickson.* Easy accept AND useful accept. They travel together.

**Formula:** Easy thing, and useful thing.

**Slots:** easy · useful

**Steps**

1. Put the easy one first (you can hear the air, you are sitting).
2. And.
3. The useful one.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
You can hear [easy], and you can **[useful]**.
```

**Tell it:** Always easy first. Useful first is a shove.

### Compound Suggestion — Implied Causative

*Erickson.* As / while / during glues two things in time so the second feels like it belongs to the first.

**Formula:** As you X, you Y. While A, B.

**Slots:** undeniable or inevitable X · desired Y

**Steps**

1. X is happening or about to.
2. As / while / during.
3. Y.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
As you [breathe out], you can **[go down]**.
While [the story continues], **[that's right]**.
```

**Tell it:** The weakest logical link and the most useful. The body accepts simultaneity as cause.

### Compound Suggestion — Causative

*Both.* Because / makes / causes. Sounds stronger. Use when they are already moving. Thin ice if they are not.

**Formula:** Because you are X, you can Y. X makes Y.

**Slots:** because-clause that is true · Y

**Steps**

1. A because that is actually true (you are sitting).
2. Then Y.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
Because you are sitting, you can **[go down]**.
Because DHE 2000 is the only way, **relax your shoulders**.
```

**Tell it:** Bandler will use because as a joke that still runs. Erickson uses as/while more than because.

## Return / keep it running

Bring them back so the work can travel. Or leave a thread running.

### My Voice Will Go With You

*Erickson.* Posthypnotic of the operator. The work is not tied to the room.

**Formula:** My voice will go with you. These learnings go with you. You will hear this when it is useful, in your own inner voice.

**Slots:** what travels · when it speaks later

**Steps**

1. Toward the end, still in.
2. The voice / the learnings / the ease goes with you.
3. In your own voice, when it is useful.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
And my voice will go with you,
and these [learnings / this ease / this machine] go with you,
and you will hear them in your own way, when it is useful.
```

**Tell it:** Do not make them dependent on your velvet. Transfer to their inner voice or you have built a client, not a change.

### Amnesia Wrap

*Erickson.* Protects the work from the critic’s review. Do not say forget. Change the subject hard to something sensory and slightly funny.

**Formula:** Finish the work. Interrupt. Vivid new subject. Reorient.

**Slots:** the work to protect · the interrupt · the vivid new subject

**Steps**

1. Do not summarize the work.
2. A sideways sensory beat (a dog, a sound, a joke).
3. Here-and-now. Eyes. Stretch.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
[work ends, no recap]
[sideways image, no moral]
And you can be here, clear, bringing what you need, the work already running.
```

**Tell it:** 'Forget this' is a spotlight. A dog walking off is an amnesia.

### Reorientation Formula

*Both.* Brings them back so the work can travel. Not a snap. Not a hole you leave them in.

**Formula:** In a moment you will be here, bringing what you need, eyes open, clear, already begun.

**Slots:** the return cue · what comes with them · a here-and-now sensory

**Steps**

1. In a moment, but not yet (optional).
2. Count up, or drops lifting, or a joke and a stretch.
3. Eyes open. Already begun. Permanently if that is true.

**Skeleton — copy this, fill the brackets**

```
In a moment you will be here,
bringing with you what you need,
eyes open, clear,
the [work] already running.
[cue: 1… 2… 3… or a laugh, a stretch, a dog]
```

**Tell it:** Erickson: dripping on brass, each drop lifting. Bandler: a joke, a stretch, the dog walking off.

## Presupposition classes (Bandler & Grinder, Patterns I)

Put the payload in the part of the sentence that is not up for debate. These are the named classes.

| Class | Does | Formula | Example |

|---|---|---|---|

| Existence | Names a thing, so it is. | The X… That Y… | The part of you that already knows. The trance you are already in. |
| Awareness | Notice / realize / know / aware presuppose the thing noticed. | You may notice X. Are you aware that Y. | You may notice the breath has already slowed. |
| Time | Before / after / during / when / while / as / until. | Before you X, Y. When you X, Y. | Before you go all the way down, take a breath. |
| Ordinal | First, another, last, next — presuppose a series. | Another breath. The first time you… | Another breath can take you further. The remaining tension. |
| Exclusive or | This or that, not both — both do the work. | Will you X now or in a minute. | Do you want to go down quickly or take your time going down. |
| Inclusive or | This or that or both. | X or Y or both. | You may close the eyes or keep them open or one then the other. |
| Adverb / adjective | Deeply, easily, already, naturally — the modifier is not the debate. | You can easily X. You have already Y. | You can easily settle. You have already begun. |
| Change-of-time verbs | Begin, continue, proceed, stop, start, still — presuppose a process in motion. | Continue to X. Stop Y. Begin to Z. | Continue to go down. Stop trying. Begin to notice. |
| Commentary adjectives | Fortunately, luckily, happily — a value as weather. | Fortunately, X. | Fortunately, you don't have to know how. |
| Possibility / necessity | Can / must baked in. | You can X. You have to Y. | You can let it work. You have to be available, not eager. |

---

*The Nested Hall. Copy the skeleton. Fill their Tuesday. Leave one thread running.*